By Samiur Rahman Mahid
The whim of Neymar’s 222 million euro Transfer fee is yet to fade away from the eyes of football fans, another astronomical figure for Philippe Coutinho raised the eyebrows. £142 million for a footballer, who is yet to prove himself as a towering personality or enigmatic talent! Numbers never lie. It is clearly visible that the footballers’ transfer market has become a big infatuated bubble due to an influx of investors from various parts of the world. Far from the continent, Bangladesh, a country lying deep down in the FIFA rankings index is also suffering the same problem. The players are not performing well enough to earn accolades at a regional level or international tournaments. Even the entertainment value of football is also decreasing day-by-day, due to lack of quality footballers and poor marketing strategy. But still, the payments of the footballers are on the rise.
Abahoni Limited clinched the title of this year’s Bangladesh Professional League (BPL), with a match to spare. A recent study, carried out by an eminent local newspaper suggests that the club spent Tk. 7 crore, 80 lakhs, which includes players and supports staffs’ payments plus the expenditures of running the team during the season. This informal study says that traditional contender Abahoni is the biggest spender last season. They narrowly edged out Chittagong Abahoni. The latter spent Tk. 7 crores, 60 lakhs, and they could finish either third or fourth at best. Another big spender was newly promoted Saif Sporting. They spent Tk. 6 crores 50 lakhs and they also missed the top spot. Teams like Saif Sporting or Chittagong Abahoni are mimicking Chelsea or Manchester City in the local football arena, which created an imbalance in the transfer market. The standard of football could vary by millions of miles, but the impact is the same.
The Scene Across the Pond
Take the curious case of Chelsea; from the early days of the English Premier League, they were the backbenchers. They used to finish just above the relegation zone. But the scenario changes after Roman Abramovich bought the club. A Russian billionaire, who is very close to President Vladimir Putin, and made his wealth from buying state-controlled oil and gas companies after the Soviet era. He decided to give Chelsea a complete makeover. Roman spends an enormous amount of money to take Chelsea into the elite league of football clubs like Manchester United, AC Milan or Real Madrid. Chelsea did not make the profit in Abramovich’s first nine years, rather made a loss of £140 million. However, the earned three premier league titles, four FA Cups, two League cups and the most coveted trophy, UEFA Champions League. By 2012, Chelsea became a global brand, with a wide fan following across the globe. Such success stories might lead some other oil-rich companies from the Middle East to invest more in football. As a result, we are seeing someone close to the royal family of Qatar running a football club in Paris; a Sheikh from Abu-Dhabi is the president of a holding company, which controls four ‘City’ branded clubs in the four different important cities around the world. So, when these synthetically overgrown clubs tried to hunt down players to take them into their camps with astronomical amounts of money to offer, the whole ecosystem is in a shock. The result is THE BIG BUBBLE.
Far away from this multi-billion dollar melting pot of football, fame, and ego, Bangladesh is a country which is on the wrong end of the FIFA rankings. Once football was the most popular game of the country, before cricket strip them off from the tagline. But the professional club structure or development system was also absent in those so-called glory days. The scenario is yet unchanged. In a third world country, everything is a political allegory and football is no different. The two archrivals of Dhaka Football scenario, Abahoni and Mohammedan also behold or favoured two different political ideology and patronized by the ruling party supporters from time to time. But in recent times, few teams enter the Premier League, creating a similar sort of effect. As a result, wages of non-performing, undegraded footballers also went sky high!
Summer transfer spending by Premier League clubs from 2003 to 2017 (in million)
Turning Dreams into Strategy
Bangladesh Football Federations long cherished dream was to establish a Football Academy. After some red-tape issues, they got Sylhet BKSP (Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishthan) as the academy. Nevertheless, lack of monitoring, maintenance, and coordination, the academy never really functioned. The ecosystem of nurturing young footballers is also to a halt. Yet there is a significant demand for footballers to fill in the places for few newly rich clubs in the premier league. These create an imbalance, which created the opportunities for fewer footballers to grab a lucrative deal.
Lying at 197 in the FIFA rankings, behind small Island nations like Guam, Samoa and others, Bangladesh National team lost to Bhutan 3-1 in the Asian Cup Qualification. An opponent, who was once an easy prey for Bangladesh, turned the table. After that, Bangladesh men’s senior team is yet to play an international match! BFF, fearing another fiasco, withdrew the team from AFC’s solidarity cup as well. Practically, there is no national team at this moment. Not only that, Bangladesh Olympic Association is not interested to send men’s football team (under-23) to the upcoming Jakarta Asian games either! Though there had been little success in that specific age bracket of football. The streak of poor performances took football out of sport-loving peoples’ minds. Gradually, football was no longer took centre stage of the media, which meant footballers also lost celebrity status. Even a rookie cricketer gets brand endorsements and quickly earns a celebrity status. But footballers fall far behind. Despite lacking the quality of top-notch local footballers, star status and entertainment value, few footballers are drawing more than what they deserve.
Defender Topu Barman took Tk. 58 lakhs to put on the jersey of Saif Sporting. Hemanto Vincent Bishwas, who was an irregular player for Abahoni in the previous season also bagged a Tk 48 lakh worth contract for the same club. Jewel Rana also received Tk 52 lakhs. All three played in that match against Bhutan, which is marked as the blackest day in the football history of Bangladesh. Alongside the highlighted three, players like Mamunul, Jahid Hasan Amely, who are past their prime, are also fetching high figures. The fact behind these numbers exists because there is no suitable replacement for each player. As Bangladesh Premier League is the main income source for most of the professional footballers, they should get their remunerations. But the question is, aren’t they a bit overpriced?
Getting Investment in Line
A recent study suggests that the total estimated expenditure by the 12 clubs is Tk. 55 crore, 70 lakhs. Dhaka Abahoni, Chittagong Abahoni, Saif Sporting and Sheikh Russel KC are among the big spenders, who spent more than Tk. 5 crores. Mohammedan and Sheikh Jamal also spent Tk. 5 crores and Tk. 4.5 crores respectively. But the money flow could not raise the bar of football standards. In turn, the entertainment quotient is also headed downwards. At once point, BJMC was famous for employing many sportspersons and forming good teams in various sports. But their recent experience with football has not been too good. Football team manager Ariful Islam Chowdhury remarked, “We are wasting lots of money for the sake of this league. The standard of this league is very poor, that’s why our players cannot perform in international matches.”
The debate is perpetual. When Bangladeshi footballers such as Kazi Salahuddin, Salam Murshedi, and Monem Munna were at their peak, Bangladesh also suffered in the regional tournaments. Bangladesh has one international title, which is the crown of SAFF championship in 2003. Though, it is also true that impact of football cannot be measured with only international success. Iceland pushed out England from the Euros, Netherlands fail to qualify for the Euro 2016 and World Cup 2018. Belgium has not made an appearance in the World Cup for quite some time. Wales has only appeared in two big-stage tournaments. It’s about the people’s engagement. Going to watch your favourite football team play, wearing the favourite players’ number on the back, talking, debating, and speculating about players, that’s where the business lies. The marketers, big brands look for these engagements to place their products. Clubs earn from the lucrative TV broadcast rights, player transfers, endorsements and of course, ticketing. But here in Bangladesh, only the vice is epidemic, not the virtue!
